Cat Welfare Advocates

Please Help Us Help Them

Homeless and Hungry: Shiva and Her Five Sons

Shiva is an exceptionally friendly, young, petite, very attentive mother cat who had 
five, energetic, nonstop sons to protect and raise. She desperately needed help.

We know some of her history. In January 2025, Shiva was observed going door to door in a neighborhood meowing loudly, asking to be let in as she looked up longingly at the door knob. Although she was living on the street, cold and hungry, she had obviously known love from humans because she sought out attention and craved human companionship. In April, we were contacted by a concerned woman who asked if we could help Shiva and her five, nursing kittens, who were left behind when a tenant moved out. 

Several cat-loving people networked on the little family’s behalf to ensure that Shiva and her five, mini-me boys landed safely with Cat Welfare Advocates. We reached out to our community to find an available foster home and a lovely, experienced foster mother with two, young sons of her own volunteered her home as a safe haven for this precious cat family. These at-risk cats won the lottery being in that loving, safe home.

Unexpected Medical Expenses

In addition to the expected veterinary costs (spay/neuter surgeries, vaccines, microchips, blood tests, and anti-parasite medications), all five kittens had an umbilical hernia, which is a hereditary condition that required an abdominal surgery to repair. One of the kittens developed an upper respiratory infection and eye infection that required an emergency visit over Memorial Day weekend and another kitten had a bad reaction to anesthesia and needed multiple veterinary visits, repeat lab work, and medications to diagnose and treat him, break his fever and help him make a complete recovery.

Two of Shiva’s kittens have been adopted to great families but sweet, playful Shiva and three of her rambunctious, joyful boys (Red, Blue and Orange) are waiting to meet you.

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Cat Welfare Advocates is an all-volunteer nonprofit. 

Your donation doesn’t go to anyone’s salary or to pay for a fancy brick and mortar office building, animal shelter or adoption center. We rescue cats in need and bring them into our own homes and care for them, giving them a safe place to recover, heal, and grow. When they are ready, we help them meet their new family and celebrate their adoption. The money you so generously give goes directly to caring for these cats. Period.

Please donate

Our Mission:

Helping cats and the people who love them.

Our Vision: 

We are cat-loving volunteers who help cats in need in our community.

We envision a no-kill world in which every cat enjoys the good life, including the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare*.

Helping cats:

Cat Welfare Advocates is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to helping cats and the people who love them. Cats bring us joy and we repay them by doing volunteer work on their behalf -- TNR (trap/neuter/return), our foster and adoption program, and our cat advocacy. We work to end needless suffering and to express our love of cats. Collectively we have 50+ years of experience in animal rescue; and we have the values, knowledge, heart and work ethic to make a difference in our community. Join us!

Established in 2017, we serve cats in need in Santa Clara County. Our goal is to place cats into a foster home where they can be safe, get medical attention, recover and grow up, with the ultimate goal of securing the cat a permanent home with a loving family. Our volunteers allow us to protect, foster and find homes for cats who would end up in overcrowded shelters. Not every animal can thrive in an animal shelter; the shelter workers do their best but it can be an overwhelming and scary place for an animal. We take the utmost care in getting to know our cats so that we can make a good match for our adopters and cats. We want everyone to be happy.

We view the cats in our care, like the cats in our own homes, as members of the family.

* Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare:

The welfare of an animal includes its physical and mental state and we consider that good animal welfare implies both fitness and a sense of well-being. Any animal kept by man, must at least, be protected from unnecessary suffering.

1. Freedom From Hunger and Thirst
   by ready access to fresh water and diet to maintain health and vigor.
2. Freedom From Discomfort
   by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a
   comfortable resting area.
3. Freedom From Pain, Injury or Disease
   by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
4. Freedom To Express Normal Behavior
   by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the
   animal’s own kind.
5. Freedom From Fear and Distress
   by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

    *Reproduced from the Farm Animal Welfare Council

We are thankful for this opportunity to help cats in our community and we ask for your support this Giving Tuesday so we can continue our labor of love.